Hat on Top, Coat Below

March Recap, No Foolin’

April 1, 2016

As per usual, I had the best intentions of writing here during March, but obviously that didn’t happen. What was I doing instead? Well, let me tell you.

If you read my previous entry, you know I started the month in Michigan, where our house was in “sale pending” status. I spent the first couple days of the month packing, both boxing up things in the house and filling suitcases and other containers with the things I’d need for my trip to Weetacon. On Thursday the 3rd, I drove to Green Bay, arriving after the early bird reception but in plenty of time to get gussied up and catch up with some of my tribe at the hotel before bed.

Friday’s con activities included opt-in museum touring and creativity sessions; I took a crochet class and taught one on nail art. That night’s party was just down the street from the hotel, which was extra convenient since that was when the snow showed up.

Saturday there was food, the charity raffle, more food, and the karaoke costume party, with the best theme ever: Pajama Party. So easy to get into costume for that one!

Sunday the con wrapped up, then I went exploring, going to a car museum that had opened since my last visit to Green Bay and taking in some of the architecture downtown. I wrapped up the day hanging out with folks from the con who hadn’t left yet either.

Instead of driving back to Michigan after Weetacon, or flying back to the inland northwest from whence I’d come, I spent the night near the Milwaukee airport, where Mr. Karen came to meet me, having driven from Idaho by himself. I turned in the rental car, and together we journeyed to Michigan to pack up the rest of our house, dealing with all the stuff we hadn’t already removed to take to Idaho or put in storage so the house would show better. We did take some time out to have some fun with friends we might not see for a while, including taking in a concert at the glorious Fox Theater in Detroit followed by late night dinner at a Coney Island.

We also took time out to celebrate my birthday; Mr. Karen got me two cakes because he knew I needed extra fun this year, what with the stress of packing up and moving.

As we emptied the house, we found things I didn’t know were there, like the old answering machine and its tiny cassettes and a colorful collection of discarded earplugs. We picked up the big rental truck on the 18th and loaded stuff into it and our little pickup up until about an hour or so before closing on the 22nd. Fortunately the buyer agreed to let us leave some of the bigger pieces of furniture that we didn’t have room for in the condo in Idaho, so that helped lessen the stress somewhat.

After closing, we took our big check to the bank (not a giant cardboard check, more’s the pity), had dinner at one of our favorite Michigan-based pizza places, and swung by our storage unit to jam a few more things into the little truck before picking up the big truck and making our way to a motel. We had a meeting with our tax preparer the next morning and then after lunch and a stop at the pie place touted as the best in Michigan, Mr. Karen headed to his mom’s in Illinois while I checked into a different hotel in Michigan so I could be around for a class I didn’t want to miss later in the week. On that Saturday, I bid farewell to metro Detroit for the time being, met up with Mr. Karen at his mom’s, and we began our cross country caravan. Getting the big truck up and down the mountain passes in Montana was a big nerve wracking, especially with a winter storm warning our last morning that caused us to get on the road much earlier than usual. We took an alternate route near the end of our journey to avoid one last pass, which meant a much more scenic route. As we got close to our Idahome, my heart lifted. We pulled into our driveway on the afternoon of the 29th, tired but happy.

We spent the last couple days of March unloading the trucks, creating a “boxes everywhere” decorating motif in most rooms of our condo for the time being. The scary part is we left a not insignificant amount of stuff in our storage unit in Michigan, but now we have the time to do a proper weed out, so we’ll figure it out.

I’d like to promise I’ll write more here in April, but things still feel somewhat unsettled. There’s about a week left of ski season, then all this unpacking, then we’re planning some travel, which will happen whether or not the unpacking is all done but I’m really really hoping it will be so I can come home afterward to organization and serenity rather than cardboard and chaos. Maybe if we’d moved more often, we’d be better at it, but on the whole I’m glad we had a nice long run in our Michigan home, and hope for similar here in Idaho. Whether I’ll still be up for skiing and climbing stairs 26 years from now, I’m not sure, but I’m gonna aim for that.